Inauguration crowds strain Metro

Minor delays and long lines at downtown stations snarled travel on Washington’s aging Metro system on Inauguration Day, but the system largely avoided a high-profile meltdown.

After a few early afternoon snags following President Barack Obama’s remarks, all five of Metro’s lines were operating close to normal by mid-afternoon, and D.C. police said travel on the major bridges out of the city was smooth.

Text Size

Inauguration 2013: POLITICO reports from National Mall

The conditions were relatively painless compared with 2009 — and it’s easy to see why. Nearly 2 million people descended on Washington’s core for Obama’s first Inauguration, with about 1.1 million hitting Metro.

An Inauguration official estimated the crowd at Obama’s swearing-in this time around at “at least a million,” according to a pool report, while Metro travel was closer to a normal workday than the record-setting numbers of 2009. About 657,000 people had boarded Metro as of 6 p.m., compared with 932,000 through the same period in 2009.

That didn’t prevent hundreds of riders from walking to buses parked near RFK Stadium and its adjacent Metro station up East Capitol Street rather than ride the rails. The long lines at some stations turned morning subway riders into afternoon power walkers.

But the conditions turned regular critics of Metro into fans, at least temporarily. Even on Twitter, where complaining about Metro is a favorite Washington pastime, the reviews weren’t bad.

“Nice job today; my inauguration travel was easy and painless. Can you strive for such ...reliability every day?” asked one user under the handle @MetroRage, one of many such accounts devoted to highlighting problems on Metro.

There were still snags, and the busy urban railroad had to temporarily shutter and reopen several downtown stations to passenger entry because of “crowding conditions.” A disabled train at Rosslyn caused delays across the Orange and Blue lines amid heavy post-ceremony traffic, and Metro opened the previously closed Smithsonian Station at 3 p.m. to help deal with the crowds, which began to thin shortly after.

After a smooth morning of trickling crowds on Metro, the afternoon rush was the real test for Metro, which reported heavy crowds outside stations shortly after the president’s inaugural address concluded.

“Good advice for folks … walk back to the station you came from, not necessarily the closest station,” said spokesman Dan Stessel. Metro officials also advised walking to stations on the line that goes straight to a traveler's destination rather than transferring trains, which exacerbates crowds.

Mark Platts and his son, Tim, of Lancaster, Pa., waited at the Eastern Market Metro Station for a train back to New Carrollton. The trains, seemingly on time, had him fooled for the moment until he learned of Orange and Blue line delays.

"Everything was going smoothly up until this point," Platts said. "That's really too bad to hear.”

Platts, who also attended Obama's Inauguration in 2009, is brother to former Rep. Todd Platts.

In 2009, many attendees were turned away from overflowing Metro stations after the speech and were forced to hoof it rather than ride the train, with common tales of walking several miles to get home. Even with Monday's reportedly smaller crowds, many people still faced long walks around barricaded streets and security checkpoints to get to stations like Farragut West and McPherson Square.

Though the absolute numbers this year are certainly smaller than 2009's historic crowd, Metro officials “metered” stations to prevent unsafe crowding conditions as travelers head back home. Hence, some stations were temporarily closed to entry to avoid dangerous crowding on the platform.